G-8 host town getting back to normal after closing of summit

SAPPORO, July 11 Kyodo - The town of Toyako, Hokkaido, the host of the Group of Eight summit, was seen returning to its daily routine Thursday after the end of the event for which local people spent more than a year in a frenzy of preparation.

Police officers who were leaving the town changed into plain clothes and carried suitcases while walking down the streets of the hot spring resort town, where uniformed officers stood every few meters before and during the three-daysummit that wrapped up Wednesday.

At and around JR Toyako Station, the signs of ''Welcome'' were seen being replaced by ''Commemoration of hosting the summit'' signs on pedestalsdisplaying national flags of countries that took part in the event.

Goods were carried back to shops at Windsor Hotel Toya, the summit venue, whichhad been emptied for security reasons.

A 59-year-old man in Toyako harvested lettuce from his field in the morning asusual, no longer bothered by helicopters hovering above him.

His 33-year-old daughter said, ''I think farmers in the neighborhood are feeling at ease after the closing (of the summit).'' Elsewhere in the Hokkaido capital of Sapporo, about 380 police officers fromall over Japan attended a departing ceremony.

Hokkaido Gov. Harumi Takahashi expressed her gratitude in a speech at the ceremony, saying, ''The summit's success was impossible without your hardworking efforts to maintain security.'' A total of about 21,000 officers from all of Japan's 47 prefectures had beenmobilized to maintain security at the summit venue and elsewhere in Hokkaido.

''I am relieved to complete our mission without incident. We were able to return the courtesies of security that we received at the Okinawa summit in 2000,'' Kiyomasa Yasumura, 56, head of the riot police division of the Okinawaprefectural police, told reporters.

The G-8 nations include Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.==Kyodo